Friday, July 31, 2015

This just in – Laboratory of the Forest 2015 横浜の森美術展

I planned to
write about Laboratory of the Forest 森ラボ when the annual art exhibition
starts. Then, the latest news told me there is a slight change in the “venue”
of the exhibition in 2015, and the previous places could be off-limit for about
2 years soon. So I decided to write about Forest Lab in 2 installments: one for
the actual 2015 Event, and another is this post for the installations of
previous exhibitions.

First, the introduction for Laboratory of the
Forest project. It’s organized by GROUP the Creation and Voice of the Woods 創造と森の声. The GROUP presents art exhibition annually since
2008 in the forest next to Yokohama Zoorasia, or to be more exact, in the
forest next to the second parking lots of Zoorasia. The basic concept of their
activity is, to experiment the cohabitation of mega city and natural forest via
art. They volunteer the maintenance work of the forest year-round, and organize
an annual exhibition in late summer, called “Art Exhibition in the Forest of
Yokohama 横浜の森美術展.” 2015’s show is their 8th exhibition.
It will be held for August 30 - September 23. They welcome anybody to be the
member and help their volunteering works. If you are interested in becoming a
member, please make a contact with Mr. Ishiyama (Phone/FAX: 045-933-1460,
Mobile: 090-1777-5881, Email: morinokoe2@yahoo.co.jp. Membership fee: 1,000 yen. Their Facebook is
here.)

As I
posted in last May, this forest is a planned area for botanical part of
Yokohama Animal Forest 横浜動物の森公園. This April, animal part, i.e. Zoorasia, has
completed its development and opened its entirety to the public. Now this is a
turn for botanical section to sort things out. Moreover, in 2017 City of
Yokohama presides over the 34thNational Urban Greenery Fair全国都市緑化フェア, where Prince Akishino秋篠の宮, the younger brother of the Crown Prince, opens
the event as his annual royal duty. The botanical section of Yokohama Animal
Forest becomes one of the two venues of this national event (; another venue is
Minato-mirai). The preparation begins this summer. According to GROUP the
Creation and Voice of the Woods, the area next to the parking of Zoorasia will
be soon closed temporarily for 2017 event. Let me introduce you what were there
in this post.

The
access to the forest is either from the west, i.e., Zoorasia, or from the east,
i.e. Shikinomori Park四季の森公園. From Zoorasia, I posted the way in May. The
Forest does not have a parking, but Zoorasia Parking is available for 1,000 yen
(for an entire day; hmmmmm, a bargain). From the east, you can either climb up
the hill of Shikinomori Park to find Nishi-Hikarigaoka 西ひかりが丘bus
stop, or take bus. If you choose bus from JR Yokohama station, it is Sotetsu
bus Asahi 10 line to Yokohama Zoorasia. (Its time table here.) Get off the final stop, and the rest is
as I wrote in May. Another bus option is from either JR Nakayama中山station
or Sotetsu Tsurugamine鶴ヶ峰Station.
There are the routes Asahi 11, 13, 14, and 15 all of which connect two
stations. (From Nakayama, the time tables are here and here. From Tsurugamine,
the tables are here.) For weekends, the
bus from Nakayama goes to Tsurugammine via Zoorasia so that you can enter the
forest from the west if you take this bus. Otherwise, if you ride the bus from
Nakayama, get off the bus at Kohdan-Shukaijoh-mae 公団集会場前. If you turn right from the bus stop, beyond the
traffic light, you’ll find a building looks like an old school. It is now
closed Hikarigaoka Elementary School ひかりが丘小学校(as
this Hikarigaoka Housing Complex becomes the town of elderly people with very
few kids). If you ride the bus from Tsurugamine for Nishi-Hikarigaoka, it
actually takes you in front of this building at the bus stop, called
Nishi-Hikarigaoka.

Kohdan-Shukaijoh-mae
stopif you take a bus from Nakayama

Nishi-Hikarigaoka
stopif you take a bus from Tsurugamine

Former
Hikarigaoka Elementary Schoolseen from the direction of Yokohama Animal Forest

You
walk to the gate of Hikarigaoka Elementary. On the left, there is the South
Gate of Kanagawa University High School神奈川大学付属中高(within
a kind of forest which, of course, we cannot trespass). Walk toward this
direction for 30 m or so, we meet a T-crossing. Turn left and proceed about 50 m
ahead. On the left is a housing complex, and on the right is a forest, the
botanical part of Yokohama Animal Forest. At the edge of the forest, we see a
swamp below the road, and steep steps that leads us to the promenade running
along the swamp. Over the swamp, on the left of us is the venue for 2015
Laboratory of the Forest. 8 artists start working for their installation from
August 2nd. Their work in progress is for public viewing so that if you
go there before the actual exhibition starts on August 30, it would be possible
to have a chat or two with them. I post my report at the end of August for this
year’s exhibition. J

The
forest to be Yokoham Animal Forest

Going
down this steps,

On the
left is the place for this year’s exhibition, and,

On the
right is the wayto the site for previous years’ exhibition.

During
summer,the swamp is covered by tall Phragmites australis.

But
early spring, we can enjoy this vista.

Walk
the way along the swamp, it eventually brings us to a small open space. It was
the entrance of previous exhibitions where several totem poles greeted us.

Like
this

They
are now removed, and the space looks like this … sad.

I hope
those installations will be there for the new site. Anyway, from here we find 3
roads. The paved road ahead leads us to Miho-Niiharu towns. The road immediately
on the left keeps going along the swamp leads us directly to the entrance of
the forest next to the parking lot of Zoorasia. This part of swamp is not that
wet, and the GROUP held before a puppet show using a log felt over the dry
swamp. The road was also used for several shootings of TV samurai drama. Yeah,
the atmosphere is a kind of “300 years ago the road was like this in Japan.”

For
sward-fighting lovers

Open
air theatre for puppets

Another
road at the left bottom of the open space is into the forest, and the main
route for previous exhibitions. There still remains a whiff of previous
installations, like …

Into
the woods,

It was
an installation several summers ago.

Well,
those white poles were not fences, but art.

And
few minutes’ walk in the woods leads us to another open space where before
several small sculptures greeted us. I hope the GROUP moved them too to the new
venue.

Open
space now ...

and
then.

From
the end of open space, a bit of climb and go along one road, we eventually
reach to the open space next to the entrance from Zoorasia parking lot. Along
the way, the exhibition presented several interesting installations. For
example

It was
an installationusing fiber optics with solar generator.

Now it
becomes like this.

This
one was interesting.It enclosed a space within the forestwith yellow
construction tape for the exact sizeof the space of a condo the artist lived
in downtown.It was tiny, honestly.

An
homage to dying bagworms

The
open space next to Zoorasia-side entrance was for large presentations, and
picnic. It is now empty with logs here and there. All are gone … sad, sad …

Now

Then

By
Kestutis Benedikas from Lituania“Sprit of Tree.”

It is
now, at the end of July 2015.

I
personally loved this one best.“Pyramid of Life”by James Robert KokoBi from
Cote d’Ivoire.

Looking
over the parking lot, the way to the right is to Miho village as I posted in
May. On the left, there are two road; the immediate right one brings us to the
place for this year’s exhibition. Another goes down is the way from the
entrance from Shikinomori Park connecting to Zoorasia. This part also had
several installations, aside from TV film shooting locations.

An
artist tried to create “ordinary garden”within the forest. This is the result,
ha ha.

8th
Art Exhibition in the Forest of Yokohama, 2015, titled “Shinso Kaiten 森創開展,” starts on August 30. I hope this years’
exhibition gives us again inspirations within the forest. The 2015 venue is in
the forest we have seen beyond the swamp before coming to the place of this
post. As a related event, during August 23 - September 13 there will be an
exhibition for the concept of the event, “Woods-ArtLand-Town,” in the concourse
of Nakayama Station of Yokohama City Subway. On August 23, there is an event in
the exhibition forest to create an installation with flags by anybody who bother
to go there. (10:00-14:00, free. The event will be continued during the
exhibition every weekend.) The opening of the exhibition is August 30, with
artists presenting their installations by themselves. + From 13:00, there will
be open-air concerts by Sushi-oke Drum Fu-chin すし桶ドラムふーちん, SORA, and Naoyuki Tsuchiya 土屋直之. During the show, the art-tour will be held every
Sunday and National Holidays from 11:00. Every Sunday during the exhibition,
there are events to play with the forest and art for 10:00-15:00. I write you
for the detail in another post for this year’s exhibition.

If you find a problem in the site
introduced in this post, the best contact address will be GROUP the Creation
and Voice of the Woods. The events also receives grants from Culture and Tourism
Bureau of the City 横浜市文化観光局.
The contact address of the Bureau is

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About Me

My
family moved to Yokohama from Tokyo before I became 3 years old. Since then,
Yokohama is my home town. (Though, I cannot be Hamakko since I was born in Tokyo ... Hey, this is Japan!) I have watched my playground is changing always. I
hope you find Yokohama interesting place. With love, Naomi